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NTO Strategic Plan 2018-23 Download English Download Spanish Download French The 2nd Network of Tax Organisations (NTO) Technical Conference was held in Cape Town from 5 to 7 of September 2023 in hybrid format. The Conference convened tax officials and experts from all over the world to delve into the domain of digitalisation in tax administrations and reflect on opportunities while addressing contemporary challenges. The digital revolution which has made technological changes in the business of tax administration a necessity, however, presents both challenges and opportunities. Digital transformation and technology have the potential to positively shape the way tax administrations collect, process, and act on information by helping them be more effective, efficient, transparent, and equitable. Transparency which comes with the digitalisation of taxpayer information, among others, could further improve taxpayers’ trust, develop the state-citizen relationship and lead to an efficient DRM. Moreover, with the aid of technology, tax authorities could increase compliance and reduce tax evasion, and decrease administrative/enforcement cost. Alongside these positive attributes, however, the journey towards digitalisation has challenged tax administrations across the world. In the context of developing countries, tax administrations are faced with various technological barriers including the lack of basic infrastructure, e.g., internet access, and lack of largescale access to digital financial services thereby preventing them from taking advantage of the opportunities presented by digitalisation. Further, the tax authorities have historically been outsourcing their bureaucratic functions to private institutions and agencies. The result has been the deployment of multi source applications, infrastructure, and hardware, that are often incompatible with one another and unmatched with the skills of the tax administration staff. This has undermined their value to the institutions and constrained the return on investment. While transitional and developed country tax authorities have a relatively mature digital infrastructure, their challenge in the digitalisation journey lies on the use of data to improve tax compliance as well as investment to make tax compliance processes as simple as possible. Considering that digital transformation is a pressing agenda for tax administrations worldwide and that improvements in the performance of tax administrations is intertwined with how digital information systems are taken advantage of, and in light of the challenges mentioned before, the NTO chose to address the topic of “digital transformation of tax administrations” in its 2nd NTO Technical Conference.